Modi must shun cheap rhetoric

There is no gain but only pain from the politics of hate and retribution. The practitioners of this art have never been paid in spades, in fact, they have suffered adversely due to this.

When I switch on rewind, in my mind's eye, I can see L K Advani launching a fusillade against Dr Manmohan Singh in the run up to the 2009 polls.

By attacking him viciously and repeatedly, what Advaniji managed to do is turn the Prime Minister into a middle class hero.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narandra Modi being garlanded and presented a sword by BJP's workers during the Swami Vivekanand yatra ahead of assembly elections campaig in Dhandhuka town of Ahmedabad district

Remember, that 2G, CWG and Coalgate hadn't happened. The entire trajectory for the Congress party was northwards at that time.

Built as it was on the edifice of NREGA, farm loan waiver and RTI. These were true blue killer applications as far as connecting with the electorate was concerned.

NREGA was one of the world's largest social security safety nets, while RTI ushered in transparency and accountability and the farm loan waiver provided breakthrough benefit by delivering the rural vote.

Of course, RTI proved to be the viper that could sting the treasury benches later.

All this dissipated rapidly in UPA 2. But that is another story. Are these brazen personal attacks counter productive is the bigger question?

Manmohan Singh in early 2009 was seen as a credible, gentle mannered, erudite politician, an intellectually brilliant economist caught in the trappings of ugly politics.

Encumbered, many thought due to a dual power structure where the UPA chairperson appeared much more powerful.

Attacks

Advaniji's attacks against the PM actually boomeranged very badly on the BJP as the urban middle class voted with its feet for the Congress.

Many people reckon that it is a mystery how the Congress got in excess of 200 seats in 2009. The missing piece in the puzzle is the rainbow that the Congress managed to stitch between Bharat and India.

This bridge paid handsome dividends. For between NREGA and the farm loan waiver in the rural hinterland and Advaniji's fulminations against the PM, the Congress attained the magic number of 200 in the Lok Sabha for the first time since P V Narasimha Rao's tenure.

It is too early to call the 2014 poll. But Narendar Modi's vitriolic attacks against Sonia Gandhi appear to be a redux of the failed strategy of 2009.

A stratagem which collapsed in a heap at the hustings. Modi is the only new element in a tired old equation where a fatigued treasury combats a fractious opposition.

Of course, there is another imponderable in this scenario. The rise and rise of regional chieftains - BJP satraps led by Modi himself at one level and powerful ruling state party bosses like Nitish Kumar at another.

Modi's attacks on Sonia Gandhi may not have a big bearing on the result of the Gujarat polls which were announced on Wednesday, but the frontal verbal volleys may play a part on the national stage.

Most people believe that Modi will beat anti incumbency because of his administrative track record. One is not questioning that at all.

Should he succumb to the lure of election rhetoric is my concern? Modi has emerged as a game changer for the BJP and though his party colleagues in Delhi may not exactly be enamoured of him nor the Sangh too fond of him due to his larger than life persona, a slightly more temperate approach may be a wiser option.

The Sanjay Joshi episode may have riled the Sangh leadership while his aggression may have ruffled feathers on Ashoka Road where the party is headquartered, but Modi's mass appeal is certainly growing.

Change

A leadership deficit in the ruling dispensation till recently added to his sheen and stature.

One week, it is said is too long in politics and fast paced developments over the last month have taken the sting out of Coalgate.

Pertinently, perception and reality as they normally do have converged to flummox the best political pundits. The needle has moved from one extreme to another in a matter of days.

The BJP's erstwhile strategy to take the Coalgate ball and run with it straight into the assembly polls has to a great extent been deflated and punctured by the Congress party managers and strategists.

By constantly and consciously moving the same needle from politics to the economy, the nature of discourse has been altered. This smart nuanced strategy has worked perfectly for the Congress.

War

Suddenly the Congress is on the front foot while the fractured BJP is on the defensive. Coalgate a long forgotten memory.

The acts of commission and omission in Coalgate notwithstanding, there is a change in the very prism from which politics is being observed in the land.

Does Modi then need to feed into the lowest common multiple of political akhara, does he need to debase the debate so unequivocally?

Instead this is the legitimate springboard from where he can realise his national aspirations and ambitions. S

hould he acquire the hue of an Atalji, be a larger than life persona, a statesman who the people respect and are in awe of.

My sense is that Modi can now do without empty rhetoric and personalised vilification campaigns. He should address development issues, bipasa being at the very kernel of this debate in India.

Bijli, pani and sadak is the only thing that matters to most Indians, they want to share the fruits of economic development and reform.

This is lingua franca that rubs off on common folk. If there is a siege within and parts of India are at war with themselves, it is because the same fruits of reform have not percolated down.

Poverty and unnecessary dependence on rainfall has led to a continuous mass migration from the deepest innards of the hinterland to urban agglomerates which are creaking under the imposing additional weight.

Modi will win Gujarat, that according to many is a given, but does he want to lose sight of the epic war that is coming?

By resorting to cheap rhetoric, he may well isolate himself with those who may want to vote for him at a later date.

Politics is also about history and if the student misses his calling, then he is doomed. Rhetoric is fine, though needless at this stage.